All we ask in return is a few shots of you getting your hands dirty. We want to see pictures or videos of your 10:10 planting adventures; whether in digging, composting, pruning, planting or that final quiet cup of tea on the bench at the end of the day.

Send them over to planting@1010uk.org along with your address. Tickets will wing their way to the best five!

Find out more about the Gala Evening

Plant asparagus in March and April. Photo: Esteban Cavrico

Asparagus

Plant
March–April. Plant ten one-year old crowns 15–20cm deep, 30cm apart in a single well-prepared row

Harvest
May–June

Likes
Very well-drained and slightly alkaline soil, clear of weeds, seaweed fertilizer

Dislikes
Cold and wet conditions, slugs

Varieties
Connover’s Colossal, Backlim, Gijnlim

Tips
Although slow to start, once established these perennial plants are trouble-free and last for up to twenty years. Parsley can be grown between crowns.

Broccoli

Sow
March–May (under cover for first month). Plant in 2–3 batches of 10–20 small plants, about 20–40cm apart (depends on variety) in rows

Harvest
June–October (Calabrese); January–April (purple sprouting)

Likes
Nitrogen-rich soil, sheltered site, lots of space (purple sprouting)

Dislikes
Slugs, snails, white fly – might need protecting from pests with netting

Varieties
Early Purple Sprouting Improved, Belstar (Calabrese)

Tips
Can suffer from disease “clubfoot”, which remains in soil for up to twenty years

Leeks

Sow
Grow small (15cm) plants from seed indoors, ready for planting out into deep, narrow holes in June; sow seeds outside in May with 10cm between plants.

Harvest
September–May

Likes
Sun, water

Varieties
Musselburgh (very hardy, dates back to 1834), Apollo

Tips
“Earth up” the emerging leek with soil to increase amount of white stem. Closer spacing of plants produces smaller leeks

Lettuce

Sow
Germinate seeds indoors for planting out February–September

Harvest
All year

Likes
Very rich soils with lots of nitrogen

Varieties
Cos: Corsair, Little Gem (takes over two months to develop a heart). Loose-leaved: Lollo Rosso, Lamb’s lettuce (small rounded green leaves), Catalogna (serrated leaves), Salad Bowl (green and dark red oak leaves)

Potatoes

Sow
Earlies March–May; maincrop mid to late April. Plant chitted potatoes 40cm apart into a 25cm deep, 30cm wide trench with dug-in manure at its base

Harvest
When flowers die down, the potatoes are ready to pick. Earlies: June–July. Maincrop: September (store over winter in a cool, dry environment)

Likes
Rich soil and potash (wood ash from stove or potash-rich comfrey); regular watering while flowering

Dislikes
Shade, frost, blight fungus

Varieties
First earlies: International Kidney (aka Jersey Royals). Second earlies: Kestrel or Wilja (high yield and good disease resistance); Charlotte (classic French salad potato). Maincrop: Belle de Fontenay (old French early main crop); Santé (excellent for organic growers as very resistant to pests and disease)

Tips
“Earthing up” the plants stops the tubers being ruined by sunlight and turning green. To do this, cover the plants with soil until only 10cm or so of foliage is visible. Expect to do this a few times each growing season

More on planting early potatoes

Rocket

Sow
All year round indoors; in summer outside

Harvest
All year, 3–4 weeks after sowing

Dislikes
Bolts (flowers) in hot weather

Varieties
Avanti

Tips
Very easy to grow; minimal pest problems

More on growing rocket

Spinach

Sow
Regular small sowings every three weeks from March–September

Harvest
April–November

Likes
Cool conditions

Varieties
Galaxy, Bloomsdale

Tips
Can bolt (flower) in hot weather. If you’re having problems try chard (also known as “perpetual spinach”) instead.

Tomatoes

Sow
Seeds (March–April) for planting out as small hardened-off plants (May/June)

Harvest
July–October

Likes
Fertile, well-drained soil, plant food and sun (a south-facing wall is perfect), regular light watering (to prevent splitting of skin)

Dislikes
Shade, white fly (plant marigolds to deter them)

Varieties
Alicante, Green Zebra (green/yellow stripes). Cherry: Cherry Belle, Sungold (yellow), Gardener’s Delight. Hanging baskets: Tumbler or Pearl; mix historic varieties

Tips
Keep plants focused on fruit (not leaf ) production: pinch off non-flowering sideshoots and the top of plant when fruiting. Green tomatoes make excellent chutney

Further reading

The ten easiest fruit and veg to grow

Expert advice on fruit and veg growing

March garden to-do list

Adapted from The Rough Guide to Green Living by 10:10’s resident carbon expert Duncan Clark.

Allotments in Edinburgh. Photo: embra

What you can grow mostly depends on two things: the amount of time and effort you’re prepared to put in; and the kind of space you have available, including how much sun it gets and what the soil is like.

Allotments

British law requires local authorities to provide residents with low-rent plots – allotments – for growing fruit, vegetables and flowers. In the first half of the twentieth century, more than a million active allotments provided a significant slice of the UK’s fresh produce. After World War II, numbers fell rapidly right through to the turn of the millennium, since when they’ve made an impressive comeback.

Today, some councils have waiting lists running to many years, but in other places you might be able to secure an allotment in a matter of weeks or months. Even if you have to wait more than a year, it can be well worth it, as an allotment will give you enough space to grow a large proportion of your fruit and vegetables in return for a rent as low as £20 per year. Contact your local council for info on allotments in your area.

allotments-uk.com has lots of advice and a discussion forum for those just getting started.

Gardens

If you have a bit of outside space, a decent kitchen garden can be even better than an allotment. Having your plants just outside the home makes it much easier to look after them and helps reduce your car use. Even in smaller gardens, you can get a surprising amount from a  mini vegetable patch or a couple of raised beds.

When deciding which bit of your garden to dedicate to vegetables, the first thing to think about is sun. The more sunlight your plants get, the better they’re likely to turn out. The best plots get sun for most of the day, though you can achieve a lot with a few hours of uninterrupted sun in the growing season. West-facing plots are better than east-facing plots, since plants receiving limited light tend to prefer it in the warm afternoon rather than the cool morning.

The next consideration is the soil. If your garden already has rich, fertile, moist but well-drained earth then you have a huge head start. If the ground is sandy or rocky, dry or waterlogged, then it might be worth building a couple of raised beds and filling them with fresh compost.

Small gardens, patios, balconies and windowsills

Tomatoes growing on a patio. Photo: Bashed

If you’re limited to a patio, balcony or even a windowsill, you can still grow some fruit and vegetables. Even a humble windowbox can provide an impressive crop of herbs and cherry tomatoes.

If you have a patio with space for larger pots then you may get good results with peppers, chillies, aubergines, courgettes, beetroot, carrots and potatoes. Salads are well suited to containers of all sizes – particularly the “cut and come again” varieties that allow you to harvest just a few leaves at a time. As for fruit, strawberries can thrive in pots, and so can some fruit trees, including peaches, apricots and nectarines. Most of these plants will do perfectly well with standard multi-purpose compost, though it’s a good idea to add water-retaining crystals (or to buy a compost that comes with crystals). If you’re using terracotta pots, water retention can be further improved by lining each pot with polythene, though don’t forget to make some holes at the bottom for proper drainage.

Adapted from The Rough Guide to Green Living by 10:10’s resident carbon expert Duncan Clark.

Guerrilla gardening has sprung up in cities around the world over the last decade, and has turned out to be one of the few things that anarchists and Sunday Telegraph readers can agree on. Sounds good to us.

To get started all you need is a patch disused land, some seeds or bulbs and a fertile imagination. But if you need a bit of advice or even some experienced guerrilla gardeners for your first dig, help is at hand. Guerrillagardening.org is a favourite resource and one of the original catalysts for the trend in the UK. On it you’ll find plenty of community advice on what to grow, where to grow it with and invitations to join existing digs that are planned for the coming months. They even have instructions on how to make your own seed bombs, a must-have in any guerrilla gardener’s arsenal. We interviewed founder Richard Reynolds on Twitter this afternoon, you can see the transcript below.

Pictures tell the story of Guerrilla Gardening better than we possibly could so here’s a selection from the Pimp Your Pavement Flickr group.

Guerrilla Sunflower

Guerrilla garden by ubrayj02

If you’re an experience guerrilla or are planning a first time dig in the near future we’d love to hear from you and even better, see some of your handywork, so do get in touch.

Here’s the transcript of our Twitter interview with Guerrillagardening.org founder Richard Reynolds.

February's theme was insulation

With everyone from plumbers to politicians signed up, there’s no doubt that we’ll all take a slightly different route to our 10% target. But 10:10 really comes into its own when we work together to make it happen.

That’s where our monthly themes come in. The idea is to get everyone pulling in the same direction – if we all focus on one thing each month it’ll be easier to help each other out. At this end, we’ll make sure the website is overflowing with tips and case studies to help you on your way.

The last couple of months have been a bit of a trial run as we’ve dabbled in lighting and insulation; now we’re ready to give you the full run-down for the year. Drum roll please…

January – Lighting
Everyone talks about changing lightbulbs, but here’s the detailed advice on everything from dimmer switches to halogens.

February – Insulating
Draughtbusting to double glazing, and a new use for incense sticks.

March – Planting
Spring has sprung – get planting!

April – Travelling
Plan your summer holiday to maximise fun and minimise airport misery.

May – Shopping
Carbon-conscious consuming.

June – Saving
Hunting down wasted energy around the house.

July - Eating
Taking carbon off the menu with local, seasonal deliciousness.

August – Playing
Get outdoors for a climate-friendly summer.

September – Driving
Back to the commute and the school run – liberate yourself from the car.

October – Fixing
All will be revealed. For now, fix 10/10/2010 in your diary and watch this space.

November – Heating
It’s getting cold again, so get your heating system into shape.

December – Giving
Dreaming of a green Christmas.

As always, we need your help to bring these topics to life. If you’ve already cracked one or two of these and think others could learn from your experiences, contact press@1010uk.org. If you’ve spotted a brilliant resource that could fit into one of these themes, email hello@1010uk.org.

Last night’s high-profile report launch by the Women’s Environmental Network coincided with 10:10 partner Mumsnet’s 10th birthday bash (more on that later). A great opportunity to accompany 10:10’s Campaign Director, Eugenie Harvey, on a whistle-stop tour of progressive women’s movements here in the capital.

If you’ve been wondering how gender relates to climate change, look no further. The Women’s Environmental Network (WEN) offer enlightenment. The House of Commons hosted the launch of ‘Gender and the Climate Change Agenda’, which underpins the quest for environmental justice through feminist principles. A panel of one lucky man and many prominent women, including Eugenie, was on hand to share their visions of a greener, fairer world with women at the core.

Bernadette Vallely, founder and chair of WEN, outlined the disproportionate burden of suffering shouldered by women worldwide as a result of poverty and gendered social roles. One staggering statistic shows that 20 million of the 26 million people currently estimated to be displaced by climate change are female. However, far from a prophecy of doom, the report highlights the potential of empowered womanhood to deliver a gender-sensitive response to our planetary predicament.

Accepting assurances from the chair that his inclusion was more than tokenistic, Peter Ainsworth MP bravely broached the topic of population growth. The subject sparked further debate when the floor was opened to questions. A cautious consensus formed around the necessity of sexual education, available contraception and improved healthcare. There was also mention of meat and dairy consumption and the impacts associated with dietary choices. We were reminded of women’s position globally as the predominant providers within the context of food hierarchies.

Tamsin Omond, a driving force behind 10:10’s work with faith groups, praised the report as an invaluable resource in the continuing struggle for social justice. With a nod to the Suffragettes, Eugenie recognised the “responsibility to do for women in poor countries what women in the developed world have had done for them” and emphasised the importance of small steps to start people on a journey of engagement.

The WEN report is available to download for free here.

A: They’ve all had the 10:10 logo on them.

Those two little tens are popping up all over the place at the moment, and if you’ve seen our latest mailout you’ll know that we’re helping things along by giving away 1000 of our new window stickers. (Signed up but not getting emails? Let us know.)

We’re aiming to turn 10:10 spotting into an Olympic sport in time for 2012, so now’s the time to start training. If you come across a 10:10 sticker, poster, tag or tshirt on your travels, snap a picture and send it over to us (hello@1010uk.org). We’re fresh out of gold medals, but will rustle up a prize and a website appearance for the best ones.

Let the games begin…

The big prize: Vallauris-1956 Exposition by Pablo Picasso. A linocut print from the artist's original blocks.

This turned out to be a good move – hundreds of entries poured in, and we finally have a winner. After correctly telling us that Picasso founded the Cubism art movement, Rosie Brown – a mother of two from London – is now the proud owner of Vallauris-1956 Exposition by The Man Himself.

“Part of me still doesn’t quite believe it because it is such a fabulously wonderful thing to happen” she said. ”I’ve been telling people and then swearing them to silence in case I haven’t actually won!”

The Picasso is going to take pride of place in Rosie’s home but well out of reach of her two children. A big Picasso fan, Rosie is using her win as inspiration to start a collection; next on her list to hang alongside the Vallauris-1956 Exposition is this quirky Picasso portrait by Robert Doisneau.

At 10:10, we’re trying to do a lot with not very much, and we’re always glad of a bit of help. Kyocera joined 10:10 back in October, and just became the first 10:10 Leader. In a nutshell, 10:10 Leaders support the campaign by giving us resources to help turn all our outlandish plans into reality. In Kyocera’s case, that means some much needed cash and the sleekest, greenest office printer we’ve ever laid eyes on.

Yes, it prints double-sided

Kyocera and 10:10 are a really good match. Although their worldwide operations cover everything from solar panels to artificial hip joints, Kyocera UK are all about low-impact printing – just the sort of thing we’re asking businesses and organisations to look at as part of their 10:10 commitment. And they seem to like us – here’s what their very own Tracey Rawling Church had to say:

“The 10:10 campaign represents a straightforward target for individuals, businesses and public sector organisations, small enough to get their arms around and close enough to introduce a sense of urgency. Its strength lies in a clear message which promises quantifiable results which, in climate change terms, are almost immediate.”

Download the press release (pdf)

See Kyocera’s 10:10 progress

More on Kyocera and 10:10

If you’d like to talk to us about becoming a 10:10 Leader, drop us an email: hello@1010uk.org.

It is two months into 2010 and we’ve been hearing loads of stories of active 10:10ers insulating homes, changing lights and turning down their thermostat. We want to feature the very best. We’re looking for big families in Birmingham, small families in Sheffield, couples in Cheltenham, classes in Colchester and all sorts of groups from Grimsby to Gateshead. If you’ve done a 10:10 action and can show us the results we probably want to talk to you.

As the year progresses we need a bunch of 10:10ers we can call on to create case studies which will be featured on 1010uk.org, in your local press and in national press up and down the country. This is a great opportunity to let your community know what you and yours have been contributing to the UK’s most exciting climate campaign.

So if you think you’re the 10:10 family in your town, or your Sunday league team has cut the carbon already, get in touch. E-mail press@1010uk.org with your contact details and we’ll take care of the rest.